Blankets
by She Who Loves Pineapples
Summary: Neku finds a surprise in his bed.
**Author's note: I wrote this like 1.5 years ago and forgot about it. I wanted to write a fluffy friendship fic between Joshua and Neku, then my fiancé requested I make it "borderline gay" so I was like "sure why not" and this fanfic was born.**

It was cold. Neku dreamed he was trying to find his blankets, just conscious enough to know he was sleeping, but not conscious enough to physically open his eyes and retrieve his bedding from wherever it had disappeared to in the night. Instead he stayed asleep, curled up tightly with his hands pressed between his legs and his nose tucked into his armpit. Until his back got sore from laying in that position all night, and he opened his eyes to see there was someone else in his bed.

He wasn't sure if he actually screamed or if he just dreamed he did - either way, the next thing he did was spring out of bed, flick the light on, and stumble over to the nearest large object, which in this case happened to be his lamp - he snatched it up to brandish it like he was using his Kewl Line pin. After he got his balance, he looked, squinting, back at the bed to see that the intruder was none other than Joshua, sitting up and blinking at Neku.

"What the hell?" Neku put the lamp back down.

Joshua had the audacity to look confused for a split second before he rubbed his eyes and replaced his dumb stare with a smile. "Good morning, Neku. Sleep well?"

" _What_ are you doing in my house? In my _bed_?"

Joshua yawned. "It's warm in here. My place is cold."

"Get out." Neku marched to the side of the bed Joshua was on. He was sitting _on top_ of the blankets; no wonder Neku froze to death all night. He tugged at a blanket, but Joshua was pinning it down. "Get off."

"No need to yell." Something tugged at the blanket, prying Neku's fingers away - Neku stared as the fleece slipped out of his hands before he remembered that, of course, Joshua had telekenesis even in the RG, and of course he just had to use that to annoy the crap out of Neku at 2AM. The other blankets slipped themselves out from under Joshua, and one wrapped itself around Joshua's shoulders. "Hmmm. Your blankets smell like you, Neku."

He was pretty much asking to be punched in the face, and Neku would have been happy to oblige his request if his limbs didn't all feel like jelly - whether it was the adrenaline rush from the shock of finding an intruder in his bed, or just because he was so freaking _tired_ , he didn't know. So instead he just glared, letting his eyes convey what he wanted to convey with his fists, and that's when he noticed that Joshua's arm, pressed against the mattress to hold him up, was trembling. And then he noiced Joshua's messy hair, and the vacant look in his eye, and the dampness of his socks from what Neku could only assume was sweat. It wasn't obvious, and Neku would have just passed it off as a result of being woken up suddenly, if it weren't for the fact that he _knew_ Joshua and he'd seen him like that before, several times, at the end of a battle they'd just barely won.

"...Did you get in a fight or something?" Neku asked.

Joshua tensed slightly, and he hesitated for a moment before finally answering. "There was a bit of an... altercation, yes."

"With who, Pi-face?"

"...Probably his doing. A horde of Taboo Noise caught me at the wrong time."

"Just Noise? Why didn't you just use your Composer beam thing?"

"I _did_ , Neku. But I just ressurected a pair of Players, so I wasn't able to operate at full power. Besides, as you know... it's difficult to fight them without a partner."

"...Lemme go get a futon," Neku mumbled. He kicked things out of the way as he left the room, clearing a spot on the floor. Joshua could've just _told_ him he needed a safe place to recover. Except no, Joshua could never just ask Neku for a favor; instead, he just took what he wanted. That, and he was probably too embarrassed to admit he needed help - and by Joshua-logic, the way to deal with embarrassment is to own up to whatever he did that was embarrassing and turn it around on everyone else.

He'd seen him a few times since the Game, but it was always on Joshua's terms and almost always unexpected. He'd pop into the RG while Neku was on his way to school, walk with him long enough to get in a rant about the Imagination-stifling uniformity of formal education, and disappear in the crowd before they reached campus. Or they'd text - Joshua usually texted first, to inform Neku he'd been watching him from the UG and seen him do something he didn't approve of. Both obnoxious and creepy, though at least over text Neku didn't have to hear that stupid giggle. They'd spoken about the Game a couple times, but it was a touchy subject, and Neku preferred not to dwell on it. On the one hand, it annoyed the crap out of him that Joshua wasn't the least bit apologetic about anything that he'd done - on the other hand, Neku couldn't say the Game hadn't been good for him, and as much of an ass as Joshua was, Neku knew he'd never do anything like that again. He trusted him.

Arriving at the closet at the end of the hall, Neku crouched down to pull the guest futon out from where it was buried under a pile of old towels and coats no one wore. Something toppled over and crashed as he yanked the futon out from under it - probably the box full of Neku's old textbooks. At least he didn't have to worry about waking up his parents. Neku's dad had moved out of Tokyo after the divorce, and his mom was fortunately away on a business trip to China. He did not want to think about the kinds of assumptions she'd make if she'd heard the commotion and come into his room to check on him.

Neku trudged back to his room, futon dragging along behind him, only to see that Joshua was now lying down, blankets pulled up snugly up to his chin. He dropped the futon on the ground, marched over to Joshua, and shook his shoulder. "Hey. Wake up."

He didn't wake up.

Neku shook harder. "Joshua. Get up. I'm serious."

He still didn't wake up. With a loud, frustrated sigh, Neku pushed the blankets aside, grabbed Joshua's hand, and tugged it. Joshua was short and scrawny; Neku could probably just pick him up and drop him on the futon if it came down to it. After a moment of contemplation, he carefully reached one hand under Joshua's back and one hand under his knees, scooping him up. As Neku lifted him off the bed, he grunted in protest. Neku paused for a moment, waiting to see if he would wake up - but instead of opening his eyes, Joshua disappeared into thin air, only to reappear instantly back on the bed.

 _Oh, great, he's a sleep-teleporter_. As much as he hated to give in, he knew when he was bested, and at this point he just wanted to go back to sleep. Joshua would probably tease him about it later, but... Neku was not going to sleep on the mildewy old futon, and apparently, neither was Joshua. Whatever. At least Joshua had fallen asleep _under_ the blankets this time. As Neku turned the lights off and crawled back into bed, his only question was whether or not to text Mr. H. to tell him to come pick Joshua up when he got the chance - but then he figured, yeah, CAT really didn't need to know that Joshua had decided to crash in his bed and that Neku was going to let it happen.

Finding the outline of Joshua's body in the dark, Neku snatched the blankets away and pulled them up over himself, before mercifully deciding to scoot just a bit closer so they could share. Not that Joshua had shown him that kind of compassion, but it would be warmer that way, anyway... assuming dead people produced body heat. Whatever. It didn't matter, just as long as Neku got his fair share of blankets this time. With a long sigh, Neku rolled onto his side and closed his eyes.

He woke up a few hours later to find he was alone again. For a moment, he wondered if he dreamed the whole thing, but no - the futon was still there on the floor, which meant Joshua really had been there and Neku should probably get up and see if he'd left yet. He didn't see a note anywhere, nor had he received any texts, but Joshua probably wouldn't be above leaving without saying anything. Rubbing his eyes, he got up and wandered into the main room - and there he was, sitting at the kotatsu with a plate of food and a cup of tea. Neku's cat, Lulu, was on his lap.

"Good morning, Neku," said Joshua. "I made omelettes. Yours is on a plate in the kitchen, if you want it."

"...Sure. Thanks," said Neku. He wandered into the kitchen and found the plate, which contained not only an omelette but also a slice of toast and a small portion of salad. Neku was pretty sure his apartment didn't have any lettuce in it, so he had no idea how Joshua made salad, but he figured he was better off not asking and not knowing than getting into an argument with Joshua at 7 in the morning about why it was wrong to telekinetically steal vegetables from the neighbors.

"It figures you would be a cat person," Joshua commented as Neku took a seat diagonally across from him at the kotatsu. Lulu was still still on his lap, sleeping. "They say that aloof people usually are."

"Does that mean you are, too?"

"I don't like cats _or_ dogs," said Joshua. "I tried to keep your little friend off my lap, but then she decided to attack my socks under the kotatsu, and that was even more annoying."

"Why? Your feet ticklish?" Neku stretched out his own foot under the table until he found Joshu's toes.

Joshua frowned. "No, I just don't like being clawed at."

"You sure?" Neku said. Finding Joshua's heel, he ran his big toe along the base of Joshua's foot from his heel to his toes. Joshua jerked his foot out of the way so quickly his knees banged the top of the table. Lulu, startled, jumped off his lap.

For a moment, Joshua froze. Neku froze. Then his face broke into a grin. "You are!" he accused. "You are ticklish!"

"Maybe I just don't want your _feet_ on my - "

"Here's what you get for waking me up early on a weekend!" Neku declared, and pounced at the foot Joshua had pulled out from under the table. Joshua tried to kick him away, but apparently he was not very strong when not using his Composer powers, and only succeeded in making his foot easier for Neku to grab.

"Neku, _stop_ that!" Joshua complained, and the hint of borderline _panic_ in his voice was just so, so satisfying that Neku didn't care that Joshua was rubbing off on him or that he was stooping to his level or any of that nonsense - it felt like a major victory to _not_ be the one having his weaknesses exploited for once. Joshua squirmed away, and Neku tackled him to keep him from doing so - and that's when he heard a crash.

Joshua was now lying face-up on the ground, feet still under the kotatsu, and Neku was kneeling over him, pinning down one of Joshua's ankles with his knee while he held Joshua's other foot. Unfortunately, getting into this semi-upright position had caused Neku to tip the kotatsu, which still contained both of their plates of food, which had slid off the table and crashed into the TV, knocking it over.

"Gee, Neku," said Joshua, "if you wanted to hold me that badly, you could have at least taken me out for dinner first." He then teleported away, causing Neku to lose his balance and fall over. The kotatsu fell back into place on top of him.

Neku rolled over and got up to examine the damage. "Damn it, your tea spilled all over my TV."

"You care more about your TV than the breakfast I kindly took the time to prepare for you? I'm offended."

"Shut up." Neku brushed some bits of egg off the TV and pushed it upright before pushing the power button. It turned on. "Good. If it was broken, I'd blame you."

"How was that _my_ fault? You're the one who assaulted me!" Joshua was standing behind him now, examining the damage.

"Yeah, well... you killed me."

"That was last year, Neku. How often are you going to bring that up?"

"Probably every time you complain about something I do to you," said Neku. "Put your powers to a good use and help me clean this up."

Neku started picking up bits of food and putting them back onto a plate, but Joshua did not help. "Neku, I can't use my powers for any little old thing. Can you imagine what kind of world it would be if gods agreed every time a human asked for something?"

"But it's okay to use your 'godly' powers to break into my room, steal my blankets, and teleport away from me? Oh, yeah; you teleport in your sleep, by the way. You might wanna see a doctor about that."

Joshua giggled. "You really fell for that? I wasn't asleep, Neku. I just wanted to stay with you in your warm, cozy bed."

Neku dropped his current handful of trash onto the plate and spun around on his knees to glare at Joshua. "Joshua," he said, "have I ever told you that you are the worst person I ever met?"

"Neku, I gave you a chance to get rid of me," said Joshua, with an annoyingly bright smile. "A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that many, many people would risk their very existence for. It's not my fault you didn't take it. Now I'm afraid you'll just have to live with the consequences."

It was the first time in a long time that _that_ particular incident had been brought up - and probably the only time it had been brought up by Joshua. Usually it was Neku trying to talk about that stuff, in an attempt to extract from Joshua an apology, an explanation, or _anything_ to indicate that he actually cared about Neku and Shibuya as anything but his own respective puppet and playground. When he realized he was never going to get that, that Joshua wasn't the kind of person to admit he actually cared about anything or anyone whether he did or not, he'd decided it would be better to just stop mentioning it.

But this time it was Joshua bringing it up, and behind his obnoxious smirk, for the first time Neku saw a trace of sincerity - he couldn't pinpoint the exact emotion, but for once, he could tell it was there. It was gratitude, maybe. Neku stared for a second before breaking eye contact, sinking down to sit on his calves. "Whatever."

"But fine," Joshua said, after another moment, and the remainder of the spilled food was levitated into the air. "I'll take care of the rest. Just, you... go make more breakfast or something. I didn't get to finish my omelette."

"...Fine," said Neku, standing up.

"Don't forget to add milk!" Joshua called after him, as he wandered into the kitchen.

"You can have instant miso soup or you can go home and get your own food," Neku retorted.

"So _rude_ , Neku. Don't you know anything about hospitality?"

"Pretty sure hospitality doesn't apply to people who just break into your room."

"And you would have left me outside in the cold? How could you, Neku?" Joshua came into the kitchen with the dishes, an exaggerated pout on his face.

"I'm just a terrible friend, I guess," Neku said sarcastically.

It took Neku a moment to realize what Joshua's sudden smile was in response to, before he realized that for the first time he'd called the other a friend. He braced himself for teasing, an exaggerated mocking of his word choice or even some cutting remark about how it was sweet Neku felt that way but Composers didn't have friends, but instead Joshua just giggled and placed the dishes in the sink.

"What's so funny?" Neku asked warily.

"You."

"How am I funny!?"

"Oh, you just are."

"...Shut up."

"Yessir." Joshua made a zipping gesture over his lips, and they washed dishes together in silence.

When Joshua wasn't talking, he wasn't so bad.

At least, Neku thought that until he got to school on Monday to discover that the entire class had been texted a picture of Neku, asleep. Next to Joshua, who was also asleep. Both of them huddled close together under the blankets.


End file.
